Policing’s largest ever integrity screening project completed, says NPCC

In the largest integrity screening project ever undertaken in policing, more than 307,000 officers, staff and volunteers have been checked against the Police National Database (PND).

The NPCC says it is the “first time any workforce has undergone integrity screening on this scale”.

It had contacted all police forces in January last year and asked them to prepare their HR data so all officers, staff and volunteers could be checked against the PND.

Chief Constable Serena Kennedy, NPCC lead for prevention and senior responsible officer for the historical data wash process, said: “The results from this process have shown that the large majority of our officers, staff and volunteers are professional, dedicated individuals who act with integrity and work hard to keep their communities safe.

“While the historical data wash has resulted in some cases which require criminal or disciplinary investigation, this low number, together with the fact these people have now been identified and appropriate action taken, should provide reassurance that we are committed to the highest standards of integrity and will continue to deal robustly with those who fall below these standards.

“In addition to the cases referred to an appropriate authority, we know significant action has been taken by local forces to address all information identified in the historical data wash through stringent processes and procedures.

“We also identified a number of people who required welfare support from their force and it is positive that we can now give them the care they require. These could be individuals who have been a victim or witness to a crime but have not received specialist support which they need and rightly deserve.

“We are working with the Home Office to establish a sustainable solution to ensure those working in policing are checked against the PND on an ongoing basis and highlighted at the earliest opportunity.”

The PND is a data store of operational policing information and intelligence provided by individual forces. It contains copies of locally held police records covering intelligence, crime, custody, child protection and domestic abuse investigations.

Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, NPCC chair said: “The cross checking of records on such a large scale was a significant task which shows our commitment right across policing to identify those who do not meet the high standards expected.

“Police forces responded with urgency, enabling us to carry out the largest integrity screening project that policing has ever seen.

“Despite the comparatively low numbers of returns the exercise was important in ensuring we have a strong foundation on which to build an automated process.

“We look forward to working with our colleagues across government and policing to make this a reality.

“I hope that it gives further reassurance to communities, and to colleagues in policing, that the overwhelming majority of the workforce can be trusted, and that if you are involved in wrongdoing, there is no place to hide.”

Association of Police and Crime Commissioners chair Donna Jones said: “This is a vital exercise in providing the public with the assurance they need on the quality and integrity of our police.

“We know all too well of the horror stories, but the very low numbers identified for further investigation among the 307,452 police and wider staff workforce shows that we can have confidence in them and the vetting processes that are in place.

“Where individuals of concern have been identified, police and crime commissioners (PCCs) will hold their force chiefs to account locally to ensure that they are dealt with appropriately and swiftly.

“PCCs also support chief constables’ call for a permanent and ongoing system for the monitoring of police and staff and will work with policing partners and government to identify and implement the most effective solution as quickly as possible.”

Police Federation of England and Wales national chair Steve Hartshorn said: “This news from the NPCC comes as a positive, reassuring sign that the overwhelming majority of police officers, staff and volunteers are fit for the job and have been assessed to be so.

“For effective policing we need the confidence of the public, so such a large-scale nationwide exercise, reported openly will go further to rebuilding confidence in policing.

“Public trust can only be won by carrying out such exercises and being seen to do so. Transparency is key, and so it is reassuring to see that less than 0.15 per cent of records highlighted needed referral to an appropriate authority, and with one fifth of these needing no further action; but this is still too high, and we must continue to root out those who are unfit to serve the public.

“This is why I call on the NPCC to conduct this work every year so that those who do not deserve to be in policing know they have no place to hide, they will be identified, and action will be taken.

“This work is vital to our reputation and our future, and will go on to reassure the public that they can depend on us and trust the officers, volunteers and police staff that they come into contact with.

“As Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, chair of the NPCC, rightly points out, this should give ‘further reassurance to communities, and to colleagues in policing, that the overwhelming majority of the workforce can be trusted, and that if you are involved in wrongdoing, there is no place to hide’.”

Building on the data wash work, the NPCC said it is is now working with the Home Office to consider a longer term integrity solution for policing which will provide forces with a solution which alerts them to any new information in a timely manner.

However, the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), which published a police super-complaint in March 2020 on police perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA), said “the figures do not stack up”.

In a response to the NPCC integrity screening project, CWJ Director, Harriet Wistrich said: “Whilst we welcome the principle of undertaking this extensive review of police integrity, the figures simply do not stack up.

“The outcome that only a tiny number of police officers from across the country have been found to require further investigation does not accord with recent findings within the Met police alone as revealed in the Baroness Casey report and Operation Onyx.

“Neither does it accord with the evidence we have collected from women who have come forward to CWJ following our police super-complaint submitted in March 2020.

“The explanation for such a virtually clean bill of health must lie in the significant problems in the collection of data that the police themselves have identified.”

She pointed out that in a 2022 review of data quality relating to violence against women and girls (VAWG) allegations against police, the College of Policing and NPCC said: “Data collected locally about police misconduct is not recorded in a detailed and consistent manner, making it more difficult to provide accurate and timely insight into police-perpetrated VAWG.”

Ms Wistrich added that in a further report published in March 2023, the College of Policing and NPCC said: “It is almost certain that the poor and inconsistent collection, quality and management of data means that the true scale of risks, harms and opportunities for policing across all VAWG threats are not fully understood. It is almost certain that this presents a barrier to effective service delivery, design of crime prevention tactics and practice improvement. This judgment is expressed with high confidence.”

Ms Wistrich continued: “These earlier findings accord with the experiences that victims of PPDA report to CWJ, where they have been told that the incident they have reported is a “civil matter” and so doesn’t need to be recorded as a crime.

“They also accord with further research from the Bureau of Investigative Journalists, they did freedom of information requests for the number of non-molestation orders against officers on each force. They found that most forces said they didn’t hold that information. This is evidence of another significant data gap.

“If the information isn’t being recorded in the first place, then it isn’t going to show up in the data wash.”